Winning the group

The one team i'd genuinely worry about are Barca, best attack in Europe currently, best defence in Spain.

Originally Posted by antonin jablonsky

Just an impression given Saha's ability to find an injury at any moment and Hargo playing 36 games I think last season with his injury that has taken 2 operations this season.

sahas ability to find an injury?
so you dont know if he wanted to play while saying he didnt and now you have saying saha went finding injuries despite you not having anything to back that up either.

saha was just unlucky with injuries, just like hargreaves.

Originally Posted by hollowman

sahas ability to find an injury?
so you dont know if he wanted to play while saying he didnt and now you have saying saha went finding injuries despite you not having anything to back that up either.

saha was just unlucky with injuries, just like hargreaves.

Just my opinion, if yours differ that's up to you. Hargreeves hasn't had injuries plural at United though, he's had the same injury and played 36 games with it last season.

Originally Posted by antonin jablonsky

I was always a big fan of Saha talent wise, thought he could've been top class if he'd stayed fit. I'm also a big fan of Berbie though, I know it aint fashionable.

His Utd career is a missed opportunity up there with Veron. He was at Utd for 4 1/2 years, but it seemed from the outside that he never really belonged, all the injuries contributed to that, and I can fully see how it could be said that he was mentally damaged by them, probably seeing the looks on the players and managements faces every morning he went to the physio did not help/.

Berbatov is hugely talented, you can not watch him play and not be impressed but his skill, but he has a long way to go before he proves that he is a Utd player. I want to see a desire to win games, strolling around outside the box when we need goals does not help/

The only game when he has come close to what is needed is City, worked hard, showed for the ball, stretched their defence, gave a 90min performance. The rest of the time he has given moments of brilliance but not fully applied himself. It is still early, look how Tevez improved in the second half of last season, but for the moment he still has a lot of questions around him.

Originally Posted by antonin jablonsky

Just my opinion, if yours differ that's up to you. Hargreeves hasn't had injuries plural at United though, he's had the same injury and played 36 games with it last season.

an injured player is an injured player.

hargreaves had a problem with ONE knee and has had an operation on both of them now which suggests he has developed another injurie regardless of how it was caused.

Originally Posted by hollowman

an injured player is an injured player.

hargreaves had a problem with ONE knee and has had an operation on both of them now which suggests he has developed another injurie regardless of how it was caused.

I'm not having a row about it. It's the opinion I've garnered from the two circumstances.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

If Hargreaves could have stayed fit I would have been very confident that as a pair with Carrick they would very effective. The games they played last year were not overly promising but they offer the best balance in terms of passing, energy and defensive cover. Perhaps a bit lacking in attacking threat, but Hargreaves was starting to show an ability to get forward and carry a threat at the end of last season. With the proper line up in front of them and most iimportantly the right attitude Utd should have been able to go anywhere and feel confident of their ability to attack.

I presume that was the initial plan, but it was a little strange that Fergie stopped playing Hargreaves in midfield in the second half of last season. I know he performed well in other positions, but if he had him down as a long-term solution in central midfield, I would have expected him to try and establish him there. I'm not a huge Hargreaves fan - I personally don't think he's the answer in that particular role - but I suspect that even Fergie may be tempted to go for another option next summer. By then it will have been three years since he first wanted Hargreaves in to fill that void; his patience may well have worn thin and he may start thinking about looking elsewhere.